Welcome to the second DESIRE Science Communicators and Museums Online Discussion Event. The event is open in the period 18-20 September 2012 and is moderated by Elisabetta Tola, co-founder of the science communication formicablu in Bologna and Roma, Italy.

In this second event science communicators at large and more specifically managers responsible for science events and educational activities in science centres/museums are invited to discuss about specific European and national science education projects results, as well as how they use these results.

Each of the 3 days of the event has a specific sub-theme. Every day, the sub-theme is introduced in details at 9 am. At 12pm and 4pm teachers are invited to connect to attend life activities with the moderator present and answering directly the questions.

During these three days we will review sources of Science Education about specific topics, and discuss about the possibility to use the results in practice.

All science communicators, as well as science teachers, education researchers, policy-makers, STEM professionals and project managers involved in science communication/education projects are welcome to participate to the DESIRE Online Discussion Events for science museum experts. We are looking forward to include their feedback and opinion in the analysis run by the DESIRE project.

Elisabetta Tola has a PhD in Microbiology and an MA in Science Communication at SISSA, Trieste, Italy. She is a lecturer in science communication, multimedia, radio production and in data journalism in various journalism schools and courses.

She is co-founder of the science communication agency formicablu, in Bologna and Roma, where she coordinates projects exploring cross-media tools in science communication. She has been one of the presenters of the daily science programme Radio3Scienza on RAI Radio 3 since 2005. Elisabetta is currently involved in the production of the weekly science programme PiGreco Party, on air and in podcast since 2004 on Radio Città del Capo, Bologna.

In 2010, she worked on seismic risk prevention, producing the docu-fiction Non chiamarmi terremoto. Her recent interest include data journalism and communication of agro-biodiversity.

Elisabetta Tola I'd like to start our discussion by posing a very straight and simple question. Let's say you have to produce a new exhibition or a new interactive book focusing on energy topics (energy saving strategies, energy consumption problems, green energy, blu energy and so on). Where would you start from? Is there any project that comes to your mind and that has produced good materials you can actually use in your work? And if so, can you explicitly say why was it good or not good?

There are frequently European Commission calls for Inquiry based science education. On the latest call, in July, there was for example one on "raising youth awareness about responsible research and innovation through inquiry based science education".

(Ecsite is currently working on a proposal about it.)

When answering such a call, you need to have a basic knowledge about IBSE, and about how far the previous European projects are in this field.

Didier Laval In France, some material is being disseminated by the association "La Mais à la Pâte". The "groupe TRACES" is also very focused on Inquiry-based science education, so I would first of all contact them.

However, I've recently found about the results and deliverables of the FIBONACCI project, which is specifically on inquiry-based science education (IBSE). Do science communicators know about IBSE project? Do they use the results in some activity?